The ToiletPC

Picture 1 of 21

Now wouldn't this just be special sitting on your desktop? A nasty, dirty toilet showing a bowl full of... hardware!

This ToiletPC case mod was built back in 2001 for the QuakeCon 2001 case competition. According to its creator, Envador, it didn't place because there wasn't a category fit for its unusual design. Still, it's interesting. All that seems to be missing is the stench (that's assumed) and a roll of toilet paper.

Envador said the toilet is actually a kid's potty he bought from Wal-Mart for $9.00. The flusher is the rig's power switch and most of the hardware (including the floppy, CD-ROM, and a 45 GB hard drive) is mounted on the back.

"I used a long green LED light to make the toilet glow green in the dark...nothing like some good green radioactive bio-hazard toilet stuff to top it off," Envador said.

Trash Can

Picture 2 of 21

This was the first case mod created by Aceedee, which incorporates a standard stainless-steel trashcan.

"[I] basically figured out how to put all the components inside with cable ties, nuts and bolts, and mounting brackets," Aceedee said. "Still a work-in-progress though--four fans with LEDs [have to be] placed, [as well as] the Samsung DVD writer, which is to be placed just above the power and reset switch."

So what's in this can? Aceedee threw in an Intel Pentium D processor seated on an Asus P5S-MX SE motherboard, 1 GB of Kingston RAM, and a GeCube Radeon X1650 512 MB PCI Express video card (which supports 1 GB with HyperMemory). He also used a Seagate 7200 RPM 250 GB hard drive and a TrendSonic 550 W power supply.

The mod was posted online back in September 2007.

Little Caesar’s Pizza Box

Picture 3 of 21

Talk about keeping it green--this PC case mod isn't really a mod at all, but is a working PC made of recycled parts and a used Little Caesar's pizza box.

The source of this mod was difficult to locate, while images show that the modder cut a hole on one side for the optical drive's loading tray and a hole in the top for the exhaust fan. But what's missing from the pictures is crumbs, plates, and cups of any sort--apparently this rig wasn't thrown together during an all-night LAN event or a similar event.

As for the components, it's difficult to tell what brands are used, but it looks as if everything is secured to the interior of the box with Scotch tape. The CPU fan itself has a rather cool-blue LED, though it seems somewhat of a waste if the pizza box lid remains closed.

If anything, this mod shows that creative minds can slice together an unusual rig even if that means having to dig through the recycling bin. Unfortunately, there's no indication that this greasy rig could play Crysis or if it came with anchovies.

Star Wars R2-D2

Picture 4 of 21

We couldn't do a case mod story without covering some type of Star Wars-themed contraption now, could we?

While it's highly unlikely this R2-D2 PC can serve drinks or shoot jolts of electricity on a whim, this build merits a second look at least. Frenk Janse built Artoo's innards using an old redundant PC equipped with an Intel Pentium 4 clocked at 2.8 GHz, 768 MB of RAM, and a 64 MB Nvidia GeForce MX 400 graphics card.

Believe it or not, this droid started out as an old stainless-steel garbage can. The modder also custom fit another chassis to hold the hardware.

The entire process was pre-planned using a set of blueprints. In the end, the modder constructed a near-identical replica that sports a working Webcam, a rotating antenna, an HD LED, and various smaller lights in the head. The main body also houses the CPU's fan control, the PC fans, and a slot for a DVD disc. The legs carry the droid's speakers and blue lights emit from the feet.

Unfortunately, Artoo doesn't actually move or turn its head, but the droid does make random beeps much like its sci-fi movie counterpart. So how much did it cost to make this PC mod? $120. Not too shabby.

Pentagram PC

Picture 5 of 21

This case mod looks both a little cool and a little creepy at the same time.

Magnus Persson, the creator behind the Pentagram mod, used a Via EPIA EX1500G motherboard, 1 GB of Corsair Dominator PC2-8500 memory, a 250 GB Seagate hard drive, a 120 W power supply, and a Matrix Orbital GX display mounted in the center of the neon star.

Despite its unique look, the rig was designed to be mounted on the living room wall (although it does have legs, too), offering Internet access and digital content to the TV. The whole case is made from layered, 5 mm acrylic sheets. Persson used 26 sheets in total made of A.C. Ryan acrylic 50 cm x 50 cm panels, 13 of which are green, while the rest are black.

"My choice of the pentagram as the inspiration for this case is not based on any religious beliefs at all--I am an absolute hardcore atheist," Persson said.

He details the entire construction process here, showing how he created the star's neon circular mount and installed the hardware.

"I set out to make a unique HTPC case that I was actually going to use, and in the end I got exactly what I wanted. I haven’t seen any case like this before, and that’s nice--with each build it gets harder and harder to come up with something original," Persson said. "But with a wall-mounted, pentagram-shaped HTPC, I think I managed to do something that hasn’t been done before."

Chimera

Picture 6 of 21

Talk about wow. Roland "ChImErA" Gschwender's "first and only" case mod called Chimera is nothing short of stunning.

The towering, neon-green mod was last seen at the European case-modding exhibition held at Cebit 2005. While specifics weren't provided (such as its overall height or how he managed to get it to the show) Gschwender admitted that stickers from Biohazard and Counter-Strike inspired its creation.

"I fetched some Biohazard stickers during my civil service and that’s how it started," he said.

Inside this neon beast is an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ CPU running at 3 GHz, a Radeon 9700 Pro, 1 GB of Corsair XMS RAM, and a 200 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM hard drive. For water cooling, Gschwender added a ceramic-bearing pump. There is also a side-door that can be opened using a remote control.

Toaster PC

Picture 7 of 21

Okay, so the Toaster PC isn't exactly the most attractive mod you can find (although it is a lot prettier than the pizza box mod), but it's still an interesting concept. No, the device doesn't actually make toast, but rather houses a VIA EPIA M9000 motherboard, a 40 GB hard drive, 512 MB of DDR memory, a Panasonic 4x DVD optical drive, a Hauppauge USB TV card, and more.

As for the actual toaster, it was a GE model before the modder ripped out its innards. Toaster PC modder Adam Bertram said the inspiration to build this unique PC came from his significant other.

"My wife came to me and asked to place our old PII tower computer in the kitchen (she has several cookbooks, gets recipes online, etc.). "Now let me tell you that not only is this tower computer huge, it is U-G-L-Y. I don’t even think it would fit underneath the kitchen cabinets, and don’t even ask about the six-year-old 15" monitor," he said. "Now, when I explained all of this to one of my co-workers he suggested a mini-ITX system. I had never heard of this, but when he told me about how small it was, its capabilities, and its price, I thought 'wunderbar' this is it!"

The Great Satan

Picture 8 of 21

Someone evidently had a beef with Dell's computers.

When loading up the site showcasing The Great Satan's overall construction, the modder behind this evil design admitted that the conversion was a literal translation of his view about the distributor. He even sacrificed an old Dell Inspiron M155 case just for the cause.

After throwing a huge spine over the back and slapping a skeletal arm on the side, the modder loaded it all up with foam and lots of demonic red paint. He topped off the entire satanic rig with a rather disturbing, fang-laden skull. The end result? A monstrosity that might make friends and family question the end-user's sanity. Good luck sleeping at night with that in the room.

Under its evil hood, the modder threw in an Asus Dragon motherboard and AMD's Athlon XP 3000+ processor. For a power supply, he used the Cooler Master 600 W eXtreme Power Plus. On the front he mounted a touch-screen display behind a circular frame and a slot-loaded DVD drive placed just underneath. Unfortunately, that's the extent of the available specs.

As if to reiterate his overall views on Dell, on the side, the modder added a "HELL" logo with the slanted "E" for which Dell is known. In the rear is a fog machine with a small switch protruding from the chassis. Wicked.

Whiskey Bottle

Picture 9 of 21

Here's a case mod dedicated to PC enthusiasts who prefer a little nightcap in the evening.

Apparently, the idea behind the Whiskey PC was not to encourage consuming large doses of alcohol, but rather to make something quiet, small, and with minimal power consumption, while also functioning as a basic home server. With that in mind, modder Janos Marton decided to create the rig using a 1.5 liter Ballantine's bottle and a 3.5" single-board computer just because it hadn't been done before. The end result looks right at home with his other racked and free-standing bottles.

The drawback to this design is that the ports (VGA, serial, USB, etc.) are mounted through the side and not the back--this defeats any attempts to hide the attached cables. As for components, Marton threw in an Intel Pentium III 733EB processor, 256 MB of notebook RAM, a 40 GB notebook hard drive, and a 60 W power supply.

"The RAM module is placed at the back side of the motherboard," Marton said in 2006. "A compact flash card slot is also situated there, so I could use it instead of IDE hard drive."

The hard drive and power supply were inserted into the bottle first, then he managed to cram in the remainder of the components. He mounted an old VGA cooling fan at the base of the neck so it could pipe out the heat generated from within.

GerbilPC

Picture 10 of 21

Go ahead, get it out of your system. Say "oooooh" and "ahhhh." This neon rig simply looks awesome, even though the base component is actually meant to house rodents (a CritterTrail gerbil cage, in fact).

Called GerbilPC, this case mod sports a brilliant combination of colors that compliment each other. The rig was built in 2007 and took around 40 hours to complete. As for specs, it packs an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor, a MSI K8N Neo motherboard (Socket 939), an ATI Radeon X500 PCI Express (PCIe) graphics card, a 320 GB IDE hard drive, and 2 GB of PC-3200 RAM. It also has a 500 W power supply, a DVD burner, and a 24-in-1 card reader.

"This bad boy comes with four 80 mm UV reactive green/blue case fans, heat sinks for the RAM, a 12" dual-UV cold cathode light, a 12" blue-cold cathode, a 24" UV IDE cable, and a modified orange five-LED light array to display hard disk usage, as well as a blue-lit power button (blue dome on front)," the modder said. "Even the processor fan, as well as the gerbil cage itself, has been sprayed with a clear UV blue and green reactive spray paint. The blue cold cathode on the bottom radiates light and will light up an entire room from darkness. The UV fans on the lid even light up any UV-reactive items that are within 15 feet."

Did we mention that it was covered in fans? Lots of them. As in, 70 8 cm case fans. The reasoning behind this monstrosity? To keep the innards cool.

"This was as much an art project as it was a case mod," the modder said here. "I intended it to be indicative of the work I do, the things I see and work with every day, and I also put an interesting spin on a common concern in the hardcore PC-user community. Or you could say that is all a load of bollocks and I just thought it would be a cool thing to do--perhaps a little from both columns."

He added that the project took around three weeks to reach its current state. "The case is still largely intact, but shelved until I can get my hands on some half-decent hardware and have a bunch of time up my sleeve," Edge said.

Project Lament: HellRaiser Cenobite PC

Picture 12 of 21

We couldn't have a little Satan and pentagram inspiration without throwing in a bit of Clive Barker. For the uninitiated, this tortured soul is a Cenobite from the author's "HellRaiser" series.

According to the mod's creator, the PC is "professionally designed and hand-built." It is also completely self-contained, fully upgradable, and water-cooled. It features a built-in 6" LCD monitor, remote-controlled UV eyes, and lasers "shooting" out of its head.

As for storage, the rig has a Western Digital SE 120 GB IDE hard drive and for power it uses the 400 W CoolMax Taurus CX Series silent power supply. Logitech 2.0 stereo speakers and a CD-RW/DVD combo drive are also thrown into the mix.

Believe it or not, the modder was asking a whopping $50,000 for this unique rig, but that was back in 2007. Scary.

Compiano

Picture 13 of 21

At one time, this expensive PC mod was up for sale on eBay. Yes, there is actually a PC hidden within that 1904 Chickering upright grand piano. However, everything that made this a musical instrument has been ripped out to make way for the embedded 26" wide-screen Philips LCD HDTV/computer monitor and the computer components.

The hardware specs are somewhat sketchy: 1 GB of RAM, a 500 GB hard drive, Windows XP Media Center Edition that can be controlled by a remote, and a wireless Microsoft mouse and keyboard. Naturally the piano's sliding keyboard cover can be pulled down over the mahogany "desktop" like any other key-equipped piano. A semi-hidden panel automatically slides up and covers the screen at the touch of a button.

"Wrapped in magnificent mahogany, the piano’s warm tones and unique features draw one to it," read the eBay description a few years ago. "It boasts superior craftsmanship, as evident in its intricate carved details, beautifully curved keyboard cover, and exquisite legs. It has a charming history, as many antique pianos do. But this one also has a secret."

This high-class PC was originally built for Elton John. When it hit eBay, the piano carried a huge $20,000 price tag.

Autopsy

Picture 14 of 21

The inspiration behind this creepy PC case mod by Richard "DarthBeavis" Surroz actually came from his wife.

A veterinarian by trade, Surroz's wife suggested that he try something with an anatomy theme when he began to plan for PDXLAN's case modding contest. Running with the idea and backed by this modding community, Surroz ordered a storefront mannequin and began the transformation.

Unfortunately, the mannequin couldn't house the hardware. To remedy the problem, he bought an additional skeleton and covered it in chrome. He then inserted portions of that skeleton into the mannequin's thighs, back, head, arms, and chest.

Keeping in tune with the overall theme, Surroz didn't simply throw hardware inside the mannequin. Instead, he arranged the electronics to pose as organs when possible--most of the components reside in the abdomen.

Surroz also implemented a liquid-cooling system provided by Tribal Evolution, which was placed in the bladder region--the pump actually serves as the mannequin's "heart."

As for the rig's storage, a hard drive serves as the rig's "brain." LEDs are connected to the Crucial Ballistix RAM via fiber-optic connections, which have activity-powered LEDs and mimic the thought process by lighting up during memory activity.

Mystery Machine

Picture 15 of 21

Created as a birthday present for his children, modder "Dracos" managed to replicate the famous Mystery Machine from the Scooby-Doo franchise using a custom case and minimal hardware.

Details on the project are just as minimal, while photographs indicate that the rig sports glowing headlights and figurines of the crew sitting in the "van's" cockpit. The CD-ROM loading tray resides just above the front windshield and features a clear and red lip. On top of the van, Dracos placed two handles for portability. It's also unclear whether the vehicle's wheels actually spin.

Like most PCs, the Mystery Machine offers both exhaust fan ports and a traditional panel with USB, serial, parallel, and other ports on the back. Although the modder managed to install a rear bumper, the pretend vehicle doesn't use rear tail lights--a surprising factor given that it has working headlights.

As previously mentioned, the PC components are rather minimal, with Intel's CA810 motherboard, an Intel processor, and integrated Intel graphics.

Scooby snacks apparently are not included, either.

Mineral Oil Submerged PC

Picture 16 of 21

Out of all the PC mods shown in this roundup, this PC playing host to components submerged in mineral oil probably doesn't really qualify as "modded." Instead, it uses a different form of fanless cooling.

Built by Puget Systems, the company sought to create an attractive setup by incorporating an aquarium and clear mineral oil. The company said that other mineral oil-based solutions neither looked good nor performed well. Taking notes from those failed attempts, Puget even sought to better the one we created here at Tom's Hardware by using a clear acrylic case.

"The Tom's Hardware system used a clear acrylic case and they had to painstakingly seal each rear connector to keep the oil from leaking," Puget said. "We wanted to put the ports on top to solve that problem the simple way. Other people have built systems in aquariums before, but they were always oversized and square. When we found the Eclipse System 6 Aquarium, we were excited to see an aquarium that was absolutely perfect in size--you couldn't go any smaller."

Skeleton

Picture 17 of 21

The Skeleton mod, created by Bryant Baker of Roswell, Georgia, was one of the many winners in a case-mod contest conducted back in 2006.

As an HVAC tech by trade, Baker decided to use materials from his day job and to mold everything using only a hammer. Most of what you see used in the mod is bronze-brazed, hammer-beaten copper, but the skeleton beast's skull is comprised of bronze-brazed, silver plating.

As for the skeleton's spine, that's all refrigerant piping he beat into shape, manually forming "bones." The "on" and "reset" switches are from defective setback thermostats.

"This is my attempt to show off the inside of a computer in a fashion that complements and supports these basic computer components aesthetically," Baker said. "It took about three weeks to assemble and every dime that I got for it came from a birthday gift from my wife--$600.00. This is my main and only computer that I use every day."

As for the specs, the skeleton rig has an Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard with an AMD 64 Athlon 3500+ processor. It also has 1 GB of DDR2-667 RAM and GeForce 6150 integrated graphics.

The rig's DVD-RW optical drive and 300 GB hard drive are suspended from the spine. When the DVD writer or hard drive powers up or goes into "seek" mode, the skull face actually jiggles. Nice.

Tetris

Picture 18 of 21

Even for gamers, this case mod might be a little too much.

Tetris was conceived and built by a Spanish gaming clan known as the Planet Express Clan (PEC). Details about this neon beast can be found here, which reveal that the mod is actually comprised of many independent and interconnected PCs, each one built from acrylic panels and lit-up with LEDs.

With that said, Tetris is actually a full-fledged local network mounted into one puzzle display. That also means the case mods sitting at the bottom of the display have to carry the weight of the PCs stacked on top. To make that work, the group had to construct a fortified base to work with the way the pieces fit together.

"With the external frames completed, it was time to begin the internal structure. Each piece would be different, and so each clan member could set the internal system up any way that he or she wanted," PEC said. "Before we could finally start installing systems, we needed the walls of the blocks. The goal was for each wall to be a colored methacrylate, which didn’t exist in the colors we needed. So, we had to improvise and decided to use transparent methacrylate and placed color films on the 30 cm x 30 cm inside walls."

Kratos, God Of War

Picture 19 of 21

Now here's a case mod for PlayStation 3 owners and fans of the God of War series: Kratos.

Honestly, it's hard to imagine anyone actually sitting in front of his scowling face and bloodied sword without wondering if the creep is really watching their every move. Even die-hard God of War fans might find Kratos' menacing form a little unnerving, even though he's missing a pair of legs. Hey, we could see this guy coming to life, pulling himself off the table and hand-pulling his upper torso across the floor, sword clenched between his teeth. Creepy.

Unfortunately, very little is known about this mod. A YouTube video reveals the hardware inside, but it seems that Kratos is actually hooked-up to another PC positioned immediately behind his back. Still, the user can access the mod's hardware--what there is of it--by opening an access panel mounted between Kratos' shoulder blades. The mod seems rather recent, as it appeared at Campus Party Brazil 2010.

The Machine - Strogg 1

Picture 20 of 21

The inspiration behind The Machine - Strogg 1 stems from popular id Software-based PC games like Quake 4 and Doom 3. However, the modder wanted to steer clear of other id Software-influenced, scene-based PC case mods already on the "scene," such as Project Mars City.

Instead, the modder chose to create something similar to the Strogg in Quake 4. There is also a little Star Trek thrown into the mix, with influences from the menacing Borg "resistance is futile" alien race.

To accomplish some of the exterior detail work, the modder purchased model parts that were originally used to provide hobbyists with pieces missing from store-bought kits. Two aluminum pipes were also purchased and cut in order to house two fans.